ForkAndPen

I am a strong jew

I think the office is getting Zachary's today - stay strong Joe...Passover is only for a few days.

What to get me for my birthday

So...just in case anyone has 1500 bucks they want to spend on me - i want a wood burning oven - this cute beehive oven to be exact. I blame this chronicle article

(pic from alfrescoimports.com)

Eat local or i will beat you up

The girl writes passionately about eating local. It's not just for good quality fresh food anymore. The point is to create a more sustainable earth that isn't going to explode in a few years. Unfortunately, this includes being careful even at the farmer's market.

At the SF ferry building market - some farmers drive 2 or more hours to get there. Is this really local. I still want to support them but we need to keep all of this in mind. There is lots of great produce close to SF that we can buy.

Seen on a truck this morning

"Look, there's no metaphysics on earth like chocolates."
Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet (1888-1935)

Lots of candy quotes!

Yuck - KFC goes bonkers

This is just a horrible idea. I am one for southern food but in ONE BOWL. Why KFC - why do you drive America down into the duldrums of food consumption!

(picture from KFC)

bring me burgers

a recent email from a friend

so, in your opinon, who has the best resonably priced burgers? you know under $15 or something for a platter with the fixings and stuff.

My reply:

hmmmm well a few great places:

Big Nicks

Shake Shack - (real cheap) sooo good

Blue Smoke - a bit close to the 13 dollor mark i think but still a fine burger and great fixins

Burger Joint - the most unsecret secret in nyc

Go eat meat!

Back from the boot

Italy is a wonderful country. The people really got me. They are full of life and love to eat.

Some food highlights (many of these will have their own posts) :

Zucchini Flower and fresh tomato pizza slices taken out and eaten overlooking the coliseum.

Tomatoes in general in Italy just blew my mind. I bet they weren't even at their peak but wow they are sweet and have a great pop. I will miss the tomatoes.

Boiled beef sandwich from Nerbone in the Central Market in Florence. We hung out and ate it next to a bunch of guys who just drink beer and eat cheese and olives all day.

The wine - most wines didn't blow me away but in general the house wines and the wine we had from a Chianti vineyard were very good.

Twelve year old balsamic vinegar served with parmigiano reggiano cheese from the same Chianti vineyard

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta!! It was just so good - the texture - the flavor - freshness - I loved it - its different then I am used to. The only pasta that really I can compare in my mind to Italy is from Babbo.

Whisky Gelato - it was more like ice cream - not very airy - but boy did it taste fine.

Coffee - you I love Mr. coffee - you wake me up and put me to bed. The coffee in Italy is just damn good - cappuccino, espresso, and even good old americano - it makes you smile every sip you take.

So yeah Italy was a good time.

the other kinda SPAM

So trusty Fork and Pen readers, you might notice that comments are gone from my posts. The problem was SPAM - yup the stuff you find in your email box has found its way to comment boards on blogs. Oh well its only a matter of time till SPAMMERS are showing up at your door knocking and asking if you would like to feed natural male enhancers to a donkey that likes to have fun after dark..wink wink. So yeah I shut off comments. But don't stop saying hi to me every once and awhile or telling me about all the fun food stuff you find out about. Email me at joe@forkandpen.com and we'll chat - I might actually see your email now that the SPAM will hopefully stop.

Eat what you want series #2

More crazy stuff to shove in your mouth.

Fried Twinkie!

Eat what you want series

Bush won so eat what you want!!

Turducken (sounds like a super hero or something) !

Where ya been forky!

The posting has been pretty sparse here in the past few weeks. Sorry folks. Damn work has been getting in my way of dispensing the good food that I consume on a daily basis. But alas - work is winding down and food stuff will come back flying out at you soon.

I might not have been posting but I was definitly eating - two notable meals in the past two weeks:

Barbuto - Jonathan Waxman's converted garage proved to be a great meal. I had my first taste of both Baccala and Boar (braised and soft as can be). It was the night of the B's! And the open kitchen rocks - literaly. They were blasting Zeppelin at the beginning of the meal. And drinking. Now this is my kinda place.

Pomaire - I know eating in the theater district is pretty nuts and usualy proves to not be that good (and overpriced) but last week a few friends and I had pretty damn good meal at Pomaire which bills itself as "The only chilean restarurant in N.Y.C" . The food was great but more then that the decor, the staff, the feel of the place was perfect. We had a 3 hour meal and it was paced very well (ok a bit slow but really it didn't matter).

Morning coffee

Every day for the past week or so, I wake up early and go to work. Sharing the same building with my office is a French cafe. They serve breads and croissants and stuff like that. And of course they have coffee. There regular cup of coffee for $ 1.67 is all I ever get. Is that too much for a cup of coffee? All I can say is the stuff is ruining me. It does so much more then just wake me up. Walking into my office I take the first sip and POW my eyes light up. I can taste the roasting that the poor little beans went through. Oddly enough today I tried another places coffee. It was only $1. But now I am left with a sinking feeling. You all should know that the cup of coffee I am drinking right now is not your every day 7-11 bottom of the coffee maker stuff. Its good but its nothing compared to my usual cup.

I guess tomorrow its back to my usual.

ForkAndPen goes to white castle

Instant recipe for happiness:

1. See Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.

2. Run to the nearest 24 hour White Castle.

3. Exhale and remark that you are one lucky guy.

Good Sushi, Bad Sushi, and Surreal Moment #24

Day 2

Bad Sushi

So a problem with this diet is that once you decide to try out a new place - you have to eat what you get - and more then that, you are pretty much done for the night.

Because I knew I was going to go help a friend move out at about 6:00 - I got my Sushi early at about 1 - and put it in the fridge at work till about 5:30 or so. That was a bad idea. My combo of Rock'n Roll and Alaska Maki + 3 pcs. Sushi (tuna, salmon, and fluke) was just well - cold and not very good. Oh well I learnt my lesson.

Of course after helping move my friend out I had 2 pieces of pizza. Yup there is that damn pizza foe of mine. Your trusty ForkAndPen is week. Not that it is an excuse but I had just carried some boxes AND the pizza was free. Turning down free pizza is like saying no to world peace (at least in my mind).

Day 3

Good Sushi + Surreal Moment #24

Ahh such a contrast to the day before. I had my trusty soy-milk and Special K (which really has been an easy good breakfast) for breakfast. Lunch was a simple cup of chicken soup. And then sushi!!

I went to Koi - which I have been to once before. This place is not really that cheap but is so good. The quality really is a step above most places around here - and I bet that if you were to seek out a place like Koi it would cost the same or more. After the all important miso soup came conch sashimi. First time eating conch for me - and wow it was sweet and tangy. Some pieces were chewy others were soft as can be. It came with a few radish pieces, lemon, and a small dish of ume (plum) salt. Displayed behind the conch was its shell - wow! No mistaking that you are eating this little guy. Next came menegi sushi, young shoots of the wakegi scallion, with bonito flakes sprinkled on-top. Interesting sharp taste. Last to eat was Anago (Sea Eel) from Japan. This was actually pretty large - a good piece. Unlike eel that I usually get (which I love but is usually pretty crisp and has lots of sauce), this was more like ordering a fish dish. Very light - grilled slightly (I think a bit more would have been good) with one or two brushes of sweet sauce. And that was dinner. It was perfect. I was full and had not really eaten much (calorie wise). However this diet works out i can honestly say I love eating this much sushi. It really is showing me what is out there - encouraging me to try new stuff.

Ok and now for the surreal moment (NOTE: this is not food related). I went to this bar after eating to see a good friend's roommate's band. A bunch of other bands were slated to play. I see one of the band's listed is dealership. I am thinking that is odd - there is a band called dealership from california which has in it Jane from Umami Tsunami and Game Girl Advanced - two sites I have read for many years. Of course i think there must just be some brooklyn band with the same name. Nope! It was them. They are on a tour across the country. The show rocked and I even got to say hi to Jane. It is so odd saying hi to someone who doesn't know you at all while you know way too much about them. All in all though a very cool moment. And just so you know their new album rocks - so go and buy it.

And to bring it all back to the topic - I did NOT have anything else to eat last night - the sushi satisfied my hunger and my mind (which increasingly i am understanding as the driving force behind eating). And the experiment continues.

SILK + SUSHI + ?? = ForkAndPen's new diet

It was inevitable.

I have not been watching what I eat for awhile now, probably since I ended my vegetarian ways. A new world was open to me. When I became a vegetarian I was excited about it but as time went on a new love of all kinds of food came over me and all I wanted to do was eat odd new dishes that I could have never imagined even existed. All this manifests itself into a lot of eating. And good eating at that - there have been copious amounts of burgers , hot dogs, and pizza - oh the pizza. While I am not at all abandoning my favorite foods - I need a break. Enter Silk + Sushi.

Yesterday morning after eating my usual whole wheat bagel and egg whites (made very well by Atlas Cafe on my block - they put a lot of pepper in the egg) I felt pretty damn awful. It is just too heavy for me that early in the morning. So in my sugar coma morning phase I surfed the internet for food stuff and found Silk + Sushi - a wonderful diet experiment by a Vancouver couple. They decided in an effort to help their waist and wallet they were going to eat 2 glasses of Silk Soymilk for breakfast, 2 glasses for lunch, and then have sushi for dinner, for an entire month. Brilliant. Go to their site - their recounts of dinner and revelations they are having are great.

So basically I am trying a modified version for the next two weeks - and of course will document it here. My modification is a bit of leniency and the addition of a little more food. Breakfast will be Silk Soy Milk and something else - some fruit - cereal - one egg and rice - who knows. Lunch will be something like a salad or soup - maybe some rice and chicken - something simple. And then dinner...sushi! And not too much sushi - I think for the past 14 or so years I have been ordering too much sushi - not any more (at least not these two weeks). My final modification is to give me one day to eat something different - preferably home cooked.

You might be thinking that this doesn't sound like much of a diet but already (1 day in ) I am feeling better. We will see. The idea is to jump start a new way of eating where I eat more to savor and enjoy then to shovel food in my mouth and in the process consume a good amount of sushi.

Here is a breakdown of day 1 (plus the dinner before day 1 where I decided to do this)

Day 0

Spring Sushi (That isn't the name of it but it sounds close - 3rd ave and 13th)

roll combo - tuna/yellowtail/california roll - miso soup
Total - $12

Day 1

Breakfast: 8oz Plain Silk Soymilk + Special K

Lunch: 2 slices of pizza (screwed up already!! free lunch at work on Wednesdays - oh well hopefully only the first slip up)

Dinner: Tab Tos - this is potentially the best place for sushi in the east village - family run (no tax!) and such good sushi - cheap too.

Salmon Special Roll (Salmon, Ikura, Avocado, Cucumber, Masago, and White Seaweed on the outside) + Tuna Tataki Salad (free!) + Eel cucumber roll (eel was grilled fresh when we ordered) - Total = $14

It tasted great and I wasn't overly stuffed or tired like I usually am finishing dinner.

I think this diet is going to be fun.

BBQ, Catfish, Crab, and Vacation

Hello everyone - I am back. I went on a very nice week long vacation to the Outer Banks - North Carolina. Its a rather strenuous vacation. Most days my biggest decision was - "Do I want to sleep in the hammock now or should I go into the pool?" and a popular one was - "Hmm what is there to drink?" So as you can see - I am thoroughly rested.

Food highlights include

Catfish QUE - chopped up BBQ catfish. Nice and smokey - great hot sauce to go with it. I love the idea of unconventional BBQ that actually tastes good.

She-Crab Soup - This stuff was great. A lot of crab meat in a balanced cream soup, put a little bit of Old Bay on it and it was damn addictive.

Silky Key Lime Pie - key limey good!

A bunch of homemade meals - the great thing about renting a house on the beach (besides of course the house on the beach) is the huge kitchen inside. We cooked - chicken, chili, and burgers - to name a few things. Yup we ate well.

And lastly there was real North Carolina BAR-B-QUE. We took a small trip to Powells Point (right outside the Outer Banks) and had lunch at Dixie BAR-B-QUE. I am still learning about the different kinds of BBQ, the taste of these ribs really came out. The meat was very tender and had a nice amount of smokiness. But what really got me was the vinegary gravy that was on the ribs. It wasn't a BBQ sauce I am use to. Much more flavorful and acted as a nice compliment to the ribs. I am not one to forgo sides - fried okra, baked beans, and hushpuppies. And for dessert some down-home peach cobbler.

Next time I am in North Carolina, I am taking a day trip to Wilson NC - Mitchell's Ribs, Chicken & BBQ (thanks NYC Eats)

The Forgotten Coast

The Forgotten Coast is the western part of Northern Florida. An hour and a half from Tallahassee there are beautiful beaches, marsh land, and of course lots of good food.

Food highlights eaten on my trip to Apalachicola :

Grilled fresh grouper w/ grilled onions and caribbean mayo
Fried Apalachicola Oyster Po-boy
BBQ Beef Ribs, Pork Ribs, and Chicken cooked in a big ol' smoker

where are you fork and pen

I have been sick and then on vacation - and look what a mess the front page is ! Regularly scheduled postings will return tonight.

Law and Order: Restaurant Unit

When I first saw the show "The Restaurant", I didn't really like Rocco DiSpirito. But then I read about him outside the show and realised that he was an amazing chef.

Want a good way to sour a restaurant and make it a laughing stock, put it on T.V. - that was Rocco's worst mistake.

Slow food guide

I think it is time everyone living in New York City should go out and by The Slow Food Guide to New York City. For the Pizza, Japanese, and Market sections alone.

Are you going to eat that?

A friend wrote a comment on this site asking about "cow semen soup". I tried to find a culture that ate cow semen soup but I couldn't find one (does not mean there isn't one).

I did come across a list of some of the unusal meals served around the world. I have always said that in America we are very jaded when it comes to how "acceptable animals to eat" is defined. Rats in some villages is the only meat to be found. Or in a vegetarian village we must look like crazed individuals when we have a chicken sandwitch. Of course its all prespective.

All that said - a few things on this list are a bit much - read at your own risk.

Odd food from around the world

Gujarati Mango Soup

Doesn't this just sound like it would taste great.

Temporary design

Ok so i figured out that changing designs every other day is not good for me or for the site - so this is it - this is the design I am keeping till i figure out one i really like. A good thing is I now have a test blog that i can throw designs at and see what happens.